Word: imam
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...sermon to 1,500 followers last week, Khomeini again mentioned a constituent assembly as an early step in rebuilding the country. He promised an honest system of justice, noting that the Imam Ali had set up such a fair system in the 7th century that "even a Jew when he brought suit against the highest official in the land could make his case and win." Khomeini predicted that in the new Iran "even the minorities will be protected and will have the power to bring the most powerful person in the country to justice." During the Christian holidays he received...
Some of the worst fighting of the war occurred over the New Year's weekend in the city of Mashhad, with its blue mosque and shrine to the 8th century Shi'ite Imam Reza, the holiest sites in Iran. "Three days after the rioting," reported TIME Correspondent Roland Flamini, "gutted buildings smoldered in Mashhad, and burned-out trucks and cars littered the semideserted streets. Though the city seemed calm, the army, which had withdrawn to barracks, did not appear in control. A bus full of foreign journalists who had been flown from Tehran was escorted by five truckloads...
...demonstrations subsided, the struggle between the regime and its opponents became increasingly one of rumor and propaganda. At one point, word spread through Iran's Shi'ite Muslim community that Ayatullah (Sign of God) Qumi of Mashhad had dreamed that he had been visited by Imam Reza, a saint of ancient times. In the dream, Reza complained that Shi'ite Leader Ayatullah Khomeini had been turning Muslim against Muslim and that his teachings were thus running counter to Islamic law. Among the faithful, many were stunned; others dismissed the report as a government trick...
...Muharram holiday is particularly significant to opponents of the Shah; it symbolizes the Shi'ites' struggle against an evil, corrupt leadership in the earliest years of Islam. The mourning, which culminates on Dec. 11, commemorates the death of the 7th century Imam Husain, a grandson of Muhammad who was beheaded by Sunni Muslims from Damascus intent on maintaining their rule over dissident Persians. Muharram is traditionally observed with huge processions through the streets, at which the faithful whip themselves with chains or draw blood with knives and swords in anguished enactments of Husain's suffering...
...brief hiatus before a new round of violence aimed at driving the Shah from his throne. The next crucial test will come during the Islamic month of Muharram. The Shi'ite observance of this month culminates on Dec. 11, with the commemoration of the martyrdom of Imam Husain, grandson of Muhammad. It is a time when all Shi'ites mourn for their dead, and emotions often reach a feverish pitch...